Government
Main articles: Duluth City Council and Neighborhoods of Duluth, Minnesota See also: List of mayors of Duluth, MinnesotaThe present mayor of Duluth is Don Ness, who took office in 2008.
Duluth is located in Minnesota's 8th congressional district, represented by Republican Chip Cravaack.
As of 2009, the city has a major budget deficit. The deficit has affected city services such as street maintenance, water service, and gas and sanitary sewer maintenance, and it has forced the reduction or elimination of many city-managed social programs. All of these compounded problems have resulted in city staff reductions. The sanitary sewer overflow problems have forced some residents to disconnect their home drainage systems from the sanitary sewer system at significant cost to the homeowner and have been a source of contention.
In 2004, Duluth was center to a separation-of-church-and-state legal battle between the city council, local residents, and the American Civil Liberties Union. The debate and eventual lawsuit revolved around a marble fixture on the lawn of City Hall. The fixture was inscribed with the Ten Commandments. The city eventually agreed to remove the fixture. It is now resides on private property near the Comfort Suites Hotel on Canal Park Drive.
The city was featured in the New York Times article "The Next Retirement Time Bomb" because Duluth conducted a financial study of the health care benefits promised to retired city employees. The study concluded that future health care obligations would bankrupt Duluth's government. The article treats Duluth as representative of many local governments that have not kept tabs on future health care obligations promised to city retirees. The Duluth News Tribune portrayed prior mayor John Fedo in an unflattering light with regard to responsibility in this. For decades local officials, including former mayor Gary Doty, have acquired shared responsibility. The reason, according to the paper, is that unions are powerful in the area and winning their favor is a major factor in being elected.
During the 2000 presidential election, Green Party candidate Ralph Nader received over 7.0% of votes from Duluth residents, one of the highest Green Party percentages in the country for a city with a population of at least 85,000.
Read more about this topic: Duluth, Minnesota
Famous quotes containing the word government:
“Hence, the less government we have, the better,—the fewer laws, and the less confided power. The antidote to this abuse of formal Government, is, the influence of private character, the growth of the Individual; the appearance of the principal to supersede the proxy; the appearance of the wise man, of whom the existing government, is, it must be owned, but a shabby imitation.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Government is an evil; it is only the thoughtlessness and vices of men that make it a necessary evil. When all men are good and wise, government will of itself decay.”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)
“The strongest reason why we ask for woman a voice in the government under which she lives; in the religion she is asked to believe; equality in social life, where she is the chief factor; a place in the trades and professions, where she may earn her bread, is because of her birthright to self-sovereignty; because, as an individual, she must rely on herself.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)